"The NFL made a dramatic turn in the right direction when they acknowledged the damage to players that concussions were causing."

The NFL does the right thing only after it has exhausted the alternatives. Then it demands credit and expects people not to laugh. Take a look at the Steelers' offensive line in the mid-1970s. You've got these guys (Clack, Kolb, Webster) bench pressing over 500 pounds and they aren't even weightlifters. They are football players whose bodies get beaten to a pulp. This was at the same time that the Arnold Schwarzenegger documentary Pumping Iron came out. The book of the same name discusses steroids in detail. Any idiot could see what was going on there. And it is still going on in the NFL today--in modified form. Anybody who doubts this should Google the "drug-tested" 1990 Mr Olympia contest and watch a Youtube video of these "clean" athletes.

"I wish there was one national authority to rule the sport of horse racing"

What if the "one national authority" sucks?

"Dr. Sue Stover, a professor and veterinarian from UC Davis, says that more than 85% of horses that break down on the track had a pre-existing issue that was exacerbated."

What percentage of horses who did not break down on the track had pre-existing issues?

"I hope I don't come off as speaking from a soapbox."

Not in the least. I appreciate your post. My point is that anybody who looks at a day's worth of results will see performances from a lot of horses whose trainers have precisely one excuse: They did NOT know everything.

And finally: Some trainers are extremely smart and caring. They are great people. And some trainers are scumbags. And some trainers are idiots. In total, when trainers start to talk about their horses before a race, all of my instincts are to run away. As a group, what these guys know is much closer to nothing than to everything.